Case highlights room for abuse in H-2B program

Working

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 10, 2008

They came from India to work in Orange and Pascagoula, Miss., as welders and pipe fitters for Signal International.

The visas were temporary, but many of the 500 guest workers were led to believe they eventually would receive green cards and could move their families to the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. To pay the $20,000 in recruiting fees, many sold their homes and depleted their life savings.

When they got here, the foreign workers were put in bunkhouses — 24 to a room — and charged $1,050 a month for bed and board, said Kristi Graunke, staff attorney at the center.

Several workers in Pascagoula complained about their living conditions and were threatened with deportation, according to Graunke. A protest drew the attention of the press and led to the center's lawsuit last month against the giant marine and fabrication service company.

Now Signal said it was a mistake and blamed third-party recruiters.

"Both Signal and our employees were misled," according to a written statement from Signal International President and CEO Richard Marler. "We are going to stand by our workers and do what we can to help them get justice. The recruiters' abuses cannot be tolerated."

In a statement released less than three weeks after the Southern Poverty Law Center sued, Marler announced Signal International no longer would hire new temporary workers under the government's H-2B program until protections are put in place to shield the workers and the U.S. companies that hire them.

Signal also was pursuing claims against its recruiters for charging excessive fees and making false promises, according to Marler.

The workers were recruited in 2006 after hurricanes Rita and Katrina left the Gulf Coast with a skilled labor shortage.

The workers earn about $20 an hour plus benefits, according to Signal.

It was only after the workers began to arrive in the United States that Signal learned of problems, according to the company.

It tried to get the excessive fees refunded to the workers, the CEO said, and fired its recruiter when that company refused.

"Signal had never used the H-2B program before and mistakenly put our trust in the wrong people. I was outraged to learn how the workers were misled before joining Signal," Marler said.

Graunke said the law center, a liberal advocacy group for poor people in the region, believes Signal was more aware than it's letting on.

"Companies like Signal often chose to look the other way," Graunke said.

Graunke added that she believes Signal's change of position reflects the litigation it's facing and concern about its public image rather than a change of heart. Signal had its own employees recruiting in India, she said.

Erin Casey Hangartner, a lawyer in New Orleans representing Signal, said the company's statement was in response to the lawsuit as well as "misleading and incorrect" reports in the media.

While Signal employees were in India to verify and oversee the potential candidates' skill testing, they weren't aware of the misleading statements made by the recruiters, according to Hangartner.

Afraid to complain

The program, which doesn't allow the temporary foreign workers to change jobs, gives employers a tremendous amount of control over working conditions, Graunke said. The foreign workers are reluctant to complain to police or government regulators because they could lose their immigrant status.

"All too often, in exchange for large fees, workers are lured to the U.S. with promises of a better life, only to be trapped in a modern form of indentured servitude," said Aaron Albright, press secretary to the House Education and Labor Committee in Washington.

"We need to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place to protect all workers, both U.S. workers and guest workers, from exploitation," said Albright, whose committee conducted hearings recently on the abuses of the H-2B program. "Strong labor standards that are vigorously enforced are essential to prevent employers from driving down wages and hurting our economy."

Address a clue

One union official said he knew something was strange with one of Signal's H-2B applications when he saw that the work location for foreign welders and pipe fitters was a recruiter's office building in Port Arthur.

It was oil drilling platform and rig work, said Michael Cunningham, executive director and secretary/treasurer of the Texas Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO. It wasn't office work.

Cunningham, who contested the application for the 200 foreign welders and pipe fitters, said he is glad to see attention is being paid to the role of third-party recruiters and that companies should do such work themselves. "It's too easy to abuse," he said.